The new Permanent Representative of Estonia to the United Nations, Ambassador Sven Jürgenson, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on August 14, 2015. Mr. Jürgenson served as Estonia´s Ambassador to France.

In the discussion that followed the ceremony Jürgenson and Ban spoke about the priorities of the UN’s upcoming 70th anniversary and about Estonia´s activities at the UN since 1991. Ban Ki-moon recalled his historic visit as the first Secretary-General of the UN to Estonia at the end of 2013.

Also the Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris in December and post-2015 universal development agenda were discussed at the meeting. “For Estonia, it is important that the new global partnership is based on promotion of human rights, gender equality, the rule of law, environment protection, accountability as well as participation of all relevant stakeholders,” Jürgenson pointed out. “Estonia already takes steps toward implementing the sustainable development goals and integrating them into our national sustainable development monitoring system,” he explained.

Ambassador Jürgenson and Secretary-General Ban also touched upon the reform of the UN Security Council and its working methods. “A better representation of the whole UN membership in the Security Council in terms of improving the involvement of small and developing countries and various regions, as well as reforming the Council’s working methods is needed to reflect the current world,” Jürgenson emphasized. He added that Estonia is also an active member of the cross-regional ACT group of 27 countries working to improve the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency of the UN Security Council.

Ambassador Sven Jürgenson was born in Tartu in 1962. He graduated from the information processing department of Tallinn Polytechnic Institute and completed the diplomacy and consular affairs course at the International Institute of Public Administration in Paris in 1992. He joined the Estonian Foreign Service in 1991 and has worked at Estonian Embassies in Helsinki and Vienna. From 1998 to 2000, Sven Jürgenson was the Estonian Ambassador to the UN, and from 2000 to 2003 Jürgenson served as the Ambassador to the United States, Canada and Mexico. From 2003 to 2006, he was the undersecretary for political affairs of the Estonian Foreign Ministry and from 2006 to 2010 worked at the Chancellery of the President of Estonia as the foreign policy advisor. Most recently, from 2010 until August 2015 Sven Jürgenson was Estonia´s Ambassador to France and since 2011 also Ambassador to Monaco and from 2014 as well to Tunisia.

The Permanent Representative speaks English, German, French, Finnish and Russian. He is married and has three children.

Contact Information

Permanent Mission of Estonia to the United Nations
305 East 47th St., 6th Floor
New York, NY 10017

Phone: (1 212) 883 06 40
Fax: (1 646) 514 00 99

Email: Mission.NewYork@mfa.ee
Website: http://www.un.estemb.org/